There is a new and exciting face painting technique hitting the UK by storm at the moment. 3D face painting and body art is an exciting new technique allowing an image to look as though it is sitting on top of the skin.

3D Spider by Donna at Donnahs Face Painting

The spider in the image above was created by Yorkshire based professional face paint artist Donna. Her 3D spider litertally pops from the skin creating a very realistic and scary life like spider! This technique has proved very popular with face painters across the UK.The effect is created by painting under the object with a dark grey to apear as a shadow, then using white and lighter tones to add highlights to the top of the object where natural light would be reflected, this creates the illusion the image is no longer flat but raised up from the skin. This technique can be used on all dfferent types of insects and objects.The below designs are so inspirational and show that anything from lizards to birds can be painted using this effect.Images below by Hokeypokey.ca and the incredibly talented Yana from Yana's Face and Body Art.

Realistic insect and bite body painting by Hokey Pokey

Stunning 3D body painting by Yana's Face and Body Art

Beautiful 3D bird by Yana's Face and Body Art

Below are some more examples of 3D face and body art by Elsa Pageler and Maria Malone-Guerbaa.These are true works of art, using the hands to create a 3D face and using characters as inspiration for full facial transformations.Simply amaizing!